Illinois gun-control measure unconstitutional

The University of Pittsburgh's Jurist Paperchase yesterday (Dec. 12) reported the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals' finding the state if Illinois' ban on carrying concealed weapons unconstitutional & invalid. [ Moore v. Madigan, 12-1269 ]

"Relying on the Supreme Court's 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), Judge Richard Posner opined that the Second Amendment 'confers a right to bear arms for self-defense, which is as important outside the home as inside,' and that Illinois failed to provide the court with 'more than merely a rational basis for believing that its uniquely sweeping ban is justified by an increase in public safety.' Posner also relied," the article said, "on the absence of such a law in all 49 other states, reasoning that, if the Illinois ban were 'demonstrably superior,' one may 'expect at least one or two other states to have emulated it.'"

The Seventh Circuit also referenced McDonald v. City of Chicago, 130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010), which held Heller applicable to the states, stating that "both Heller and McDonald say that 'the need for defense of self, family, and property is most acute' in the home, id. at 3036 (emphasis added); 554 U.S. at 628, but that doesn't mean it is not acute outside the home. Heller repeatedly invokes a broader Second Amendment right than the right to have a gun in one's home, as when it says that the amendment 'guarantee[s] the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.' 554 U.S. at 592… Confrontations are not limited to the home."